News

Faculty Development at Ithaca College: Preliminary Report Online

Thank you very much to the over 200 people who have been involved so far in the planning process toward a faculty development model for Ithaca College! The needs assessment phase of the two-year project featured an online survey of faculty. Preliminary data can be downloaded at the Center for Faculty Excellence Faculty Development at IC page.

Susanne Morgan has been assigned by Provost Kathleen Rountree to undertake this two-year project, which was recommended by Susan Ambrose in her report to the provost and associate provost. This process will culminate in the articulation and implementation of a faculty development model for Ithaca College. The first stage, a needs assessment to explore the scope and breadth of our potential model, has involved a survey and individual and focus-group interviews.

The survey data indicates that faculty members imagine a center that would support them in all three main elements of work: teaching, scholarship, and leadership. Reflecting the institutional mission, teaching is identified as the primary focus of the model we would develop.

A very wide cross-section of the campus community has been involved in this process. Each phase has been discussed with the Faculty Development Committee. Individual interviews were held during summer and fall 2008 with 20 faculty and staff members, to elicit general perceptions of faculty development and the best strategies for exploring the issue.

An additional 10 people consulted on the survey design and human subjects approval was obtained. The survey was offered through Survey Monkey to all faculty and 125 completed it. To explore the nuances of the survey data, eight focus-group interviews, involving more than 50 faculty, will be completed by the end of the semester.

Plans for the spring semester include a benchmarking process to identify two or three models that would represent best practices for Ithaca College, and to engage the campus community in exploring those models. Anyone who is interested in being part of those discussions should contact Susanne Morgan (morgan@ithaca.edu).